I reckon every gardener has “their” vegetable – the one they just seem to understand and as a result, they grow with ease. The tomato – while technically a fruit – is mine. I love everything about growing, harvesting, cooking and eating tomatoes. If you’re new to gardening it’s best to buy tomato seedlings for transplanting, but once you’re more confident, I urge you to get your hands on some heirloom tomato seeds and try growing from seed. I don’t think anything compares to the joy of eating a tomato from a plant you have nurtured from a teeny-tiny seed.
Tomatoes are classified as determinate and indeterminate, which refers to their growth habit. All you need to remember is determinate or bush tomatoes grow to a particular height, produce most of their flowers at once and all the fruit generally ripens at the same time. This provides one large harvest, perfect for making sauces or preserving. Indeterminate types keep growing taller and taller, producing flowers at varying times, with fruit ripening over an extended period. Most seedings found at garden centres will be indeterminate and they will require sturdy staking.
Tomatoes are best stored at room temperature for maximum flavour, but you can put them in the fridge if you’re dealing with a glut to prevent rotting before processing. At the end of the season, if fruits are struggling to ripen or if frosts are threatening, either pick the green fruit to make chutney or if you have the space, you can pull the entire plant out of the ground, fruit and all, and hang upside down somewhere under cover, and the fruit will ripen as the plant dies. Either way, when you grow tomatoes you’re bound to have an ample supply at some point in the season. Which is when my favourite recipes come in handy.

Tomato, Chilli and Basil Pasta Sauce
Throughout late summer and into autumn I have a pot of sauce on the stove most evenings. While you can of course double, triple, or quadruple this recipe if you have a huge glut to get through, I find it more manageable to have a little batch on the go every day or so, which cooks away on the stovetop as I prepare dinner and gently chips away at our excess tomato situation. This is my go-to sauce to use anytime you’d reach for a jar of store-bought pasta sauce or passata. It’s ideal for pasta (obviously!) but also as a sauce base for pizzas or simply heated up and eaten on hot buttered toast. While it’s possible to bottle (can) sauces like this, it takes considerable prep to get right – I’ve lost many a jar of tomato sauce over the years to incorrect sealing! I find it so much easier and more reliable to simply freeze this sauce in one- to two- cup portions and defrost as needed.

If you don’t mind little pieces of tomato skin in your sauce, skip the blanching and peeling stage and simply finely chop the tomatoes before cooking.
If you don’t have fresh chilli on hand, use half a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes instead.
Makes: 2 cups
- ¼ cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, red or brown finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 long, red chilli (deseed for less heat), finely chopped
- 1kg ripe tomatoes, cored, peeled and chopped (SEE NOTE BELOW)
- 1 teaspoon golden caster sugar
- ¼ cup basil leaves, torn roughly
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add onion and sauté for five minutes, stirring often until soft. Add in garlic and chilli and cook for a further one to two minutes until fragrant. Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar, and a good few pinches each of fine salt and black pepper, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally until thick and pulpy. Stir in basil and cook for a further two to three minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. If you prefer a completely smooth sauce, blitz the whole lot in a blender or using a stick blender until smooth.Use straightaway or cool and store in the fridge for two to three days. Can also be frozen for up to six months.
Note: To core, peel, and chop tomatoes, remove the core from the flat end of the tomato with a sharp knife. Cut a cross on the opposite (round) side. Put tomatoes in a bowl, pour over enough freshly boiled water to cover them and leave for one minute, or until you start to see the skin lifting off. Drain and cover with cold water. When they are cool enough to handle, slip the skins off and roughly chop the tomatoes into 1cm pieces.
Heirloom tomato and halloumi salad with tomato vinaigrette

Serves 4
Tomato vinaigrette
- 2 extra ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
- 50ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- Croutons
- 2 slices gluten-free bread or 1 bun
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Salad
- 400g mixed heirloom tomatoes, chopped
- 200g packet halloumi, cut into 1cm slices
- ½ red onion, finely sliced
- ½ cup kalamata olives, pitted
- Handful soft herbs, such as basil, parsley or rocket (arugula) leaves, torn roughly
- Fine sea salt to taste
To make the tomato vinaigrette, blend chopped tomatoes then strain the juice through either a fine sieve or nut-milk bag, discarding the solids. Add olive oil, red wine vinegar and season to taste with fine sea salt.
For the croutons, preheat the oven to 160°C. Roughly tear the bread or bun into chunks, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Spread out the pieces onto a tray in a single layer and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, turning often until golden. Remove and set aside to cool.
Heat a large frying pan over high heat, add a drizzle of olive oil and cook the slices of halloumi until golden on both sides. Remove from the pan and cut each piece into bite-sized chunks.
In a large serving bowl, combine chopped tomatoes, halloumi, red onion, olives, herbs and croutons. Pour dressing generously over the salad and serve immediately. ■